Dangerous Waters, page 27
As she joined the others returning inside, her mobile rang. It was Inspector Ferguson.
‘Morning, Jeanne. How are you feeling now?’
‘Much better, thanks, Inspector. Are you phoning to tell me you’ve got Dan?’ her breathing quickened as she hung on his reply.
‘No, sorry, I’m not. But I’m sure it won’t be long now. I’m actually ringing about Marcus. He’d like to talk to you, if you’d agree to see him.’
She gasped ‘Oh, no!’
‘Don’t worry, there’d be someone with you at all times and anyway I’m convinced he doesn’t want to harm you. What do you think?’
‘I don’t know. It depends on what he’s got to say. I don’t want to listen to a load of self-pitying excuses, that’s for sure!’ she exclaimed.
‘It seems he wants to tell you what happened fifteen years ago. He’s admitted he was on the speedboat but hasn’t given us any more details. He said he wanted you to be there, to hear it from him and not some third party. It’s an unusual request and normally it wouldn’t be considered, but these are extraordinary circumstances. If you could bear it, then it would be the way for us all to learn what really happened.’
This was what she had waited for. This was what had haunted her dreams for so long. But could she sit facing Marcus while he told her what she was also afraid to hear? Her mind was racing with these thoughts until, with a sigh, she realised that there was only one possible answer.
‘All right, Inspector, I’ll come.’
She heard him let out a long breath.
‘Good, you’re being very brave, Jeanne. I’ll ask your, er, shadow, to bring you to the station in an hour, if that’s convenient?’
She agreed and said goodbye. She looked up to see Nick watching her and with a heavy heart went over to tell him about the coming meeting.
Although Nick was concerned about her facing Marcus, he agreed that it was the best way for Jeanne to find out the truth and finally lay the ghosts. The policeman arrived at the agreed time and they drove in silence to the station.
‘Jeanne. Thanks for coming. Shall we go straight in?’ Inspector Ferguson shook her hand warmly and then, with his hand on her arm, guided her down a corridor to an interview room. Just before they went in he turned to Jeanne, saying, ‘You might be shocked at the way Marcus looks. He’s hardly slept since he’s been here and hasn’t eaten much either. I’m having him checked by a doctor once we’ve finished. It’s possible he’s on the verge of a mental collapse. But he’s quite lucid and not at all violent,’ he added reassuringly.
‘Hello, Marcus. I was told you wanted to see me,’ Jeanne said, taking in the unkempt figure hunched over the table in front of her.
At the sound of her voice he looked up and she had to stifle a gasp at the sight of his blood-shot eyes framed by dark shadows.
‘Jeanne! I wasn’t sure you’d come, even though they told me you would.’ He paused, staring at her. ‘I suppose it’s a daft question in the circumstances, but how are you?’ He looked so concerned and so defeated, so unlike the cheerful, generous man she had known that Jeanne almost felt sorry for him. Then she remembered why she was there.
‘I’m all right, considering what I’ve just gone through! But I don’t want to talk about me. I want to know what happened to my parents!’
He winced at the hardness of her voice. Looking her in the eye he said, ‘I think I owe it to you to tell you the truth, even though you’ll probably hate me even more once you know.’
The Inspector cut in to say that from now on what Marcus said would be recorded and transcribed as a statement for him to sign. Marcus nodded his agreement and the machine was switched on.
Marcus began.
‘Dan and I had gone over to Herm that Sunday to pick up a supply of drugs that had been dropped off earlier. I wasn’t directly involved in the deal – I didn’t take drugs myself and was still at school, remember – but Dan had… persuaded me to go with him as cover. He thought it would look less suspicious if he was with a schoolboy,’ Marcus gave a hollow laugh.
‘He knew the police were keeping an eye on him in Guernsey so he used Herm as the pick-up point. The drugs were brought over from France. So we went over that evening and moored some way up from Rosaire steps. The drugs were in a sealed waterproof container attached to a marker and all we had to do was haul it in.’ He paused to drink from the glass of water in front of him.
Jeanne continued to sit quietly.
‘Normally we’d have waited till it was dark but the tides were wrong that night and anyway the light was already going. So we thought we’d be safe.’
He looked at Jeanne before continuing.
‘Just as we were pulling up the container Dan noticed a couple walking along the cliff path towards the harbour. They must have noticed us and they stopped. I suggested to Dan that we leave it but he was determined not to and said that they probably wouldn’t realise what was going on. So we hauled it up. Then we noticed that the man had a pair of binoculars and he was training them on us and the container. We both panicked and Dan completely flipped. If we’d stayed calm, acted as if there wasn’t a problem, maybe things would have been different.’
He sighed and ran his hands through his now very dirty, fair hair.
‘I tried to calm him down but it was no use. He was high on drugs and booze and just kept waving his arms about and shouting. The man on the cliff must have sussed that we were doing something illegal and grabbed the woman’s arm and they started running along the path. It took me ages to get Dan to calm down even a bit and then he started up the engine and headed towards the harbour. We saw them get into a small cabin cruiser. It looked like they were going to head off to Guernsey and we waited, just out of sight.’
He took another sip of water.
‘I swear to you Jeanne, I didn’t know what Dan was planning to do. I thought we’d make a run for it after they’d got out of sight. We could have dumped the drugs and there’d have been no proof of anything illegal. But Dan was… not thinking straight. Neither of us recognised your parents and we didn’t know you were on board until… until later.’
Jeanne’s heart was pounding as her memory of that fatal boat ride from Herm was stirred. She remembered that initially she’d been in the cabin. They’d had a picnic on the beach and she was putting things away in the storage area while her parents had gone off for a quick walk.
Marcus’s voice cut across her thoughts.
‘Dan gave the other boat a good start and then went after them. When I realised that he was chasing them rather than staying clear, I asked what the hell he was doing. He didn’t answer, just increased the revs and narrowed the gap. As we got closer the man saw us and started waving his arms and shouting, but Dan kept on.’
Marcus dropped his head in his hands and shuddered. Jeanne sat as if in a trance, which to some extent she was. Marcus’s voice was having an hypnotic effect on her and the lost memories continued to surface as he spoke.
Inspector Ferguson sat impassively, his eyes fixed on Marcus.
After a few moments Marcus raised his head and she could see the tears in his eyes.
‘Dan aimed our boat straight at their starboard side. To port there were some visible rocks and I guess he wanted them to… to… smash onto them. We… we hit them and I saw the woman stumble and hit her head. We hit them again, and again the woman fell. The man shouted and went to her but… but the boat was keeling over to port and she… she fell overboard. He jumped in after her. Then we saw a girl take the wheel.’
Again Marcus looked directly at Jeanne, whose eyes were filling with unchecked tears.
‘I couldn’t see you clearly, it was dark. I could just tell it was a young girl. I called to Dan to help but he just laughed crazily and pulled alongside, to port near the rocks. We saw the man – your father – trying to hold onto the… your mother. Dan grabbed our mooring hook and for a moment I thought he was trying to give your father something to hold onto. But he… he… hit him on the head a couple of times. He let go of the woman and… and… she disappeared. Then the man seemed to lose his strength and he… he disappeared as well,’ his voice was now little more than a whisper.
Jeanne was now crying uncontrollably and the Inspector switched off the recorder before opening the door and calling for someone to bring a glass of water. He then went and sat by Jeanne, his hand on her heaving shoulder.
Marcus was slumped forward, his head again in his hands.
The water arrived and Jeanne blew her nose before taking a sip.
‘Couldn’t you have stopped him, Marcus? Couldn’t you have saved them?’ she cried.
He raised his head and flinched as he saw the pain in her face.
‘It all happened so fast! He was like a madman! He kept pushing me away when I tried to hold him back. I even thought of jumping in but at that moment we caught sight of the lights of a boat in the distance, coming out of St Peter Port. Dan revved the engine and sped off. It looked like you’d lost your balance as when we left you were lying down in the cockpit.’
‘Yes, I remember now. After Dad went to… to… help mum I tried to hold the boat steady but… but… she was holed on the rocks. A wave hit us and I stumbled. I guess that’s when I hit my head, as the next thing I remember is waking up in hospital.’
Inspector Ferguson, who had switched on the recorder after the water had arrived, interrupted. ‘So where did you go when you left the damaged boat, Mr Davidson?’ His voice was icy.
‘We headed up to Bordeaux. Dan thought it would be too risky to go into St Peter Port. We beached the boat and then Dan went off to phone a friend who had a trailer and he came and picked us up. He was one of Dan’s partners in crime and didn’t ask any questions. We hid the boat in a lock-up. She only had a dented prow and Dan got that fixed some time later. The… the rocks had done the most damage to the other boat.’
For a moment all was quiet in the cheerless room. Each seemed lost in their own thoughts. Jeanne felt completely drained. It had been a horrible replay of that night’s tragedy and she just wanted to curl up in bed and grieve for her parents, again.
Inspector Ferguson touched her arm and asked, ‘Do you want to go now, Jeanne? Or have you any more questions before we call it a day?’
She shook herself out of her reverie and said, ‘I’d just like to know what Marcus thought would happen last Sunday when he asked to meet me.’
Marcus looked up and she witnessed various emotions chasing across his face. Sorrow, despair, self-disgust and, oddly, love. She shivered.
‘I don’t know what I thought. Dan just said he wanted to see us together and although I thought it was odd, I wondered if he was going to make some sort of confession.’ He laughed harshly. ‘What a fool I was! As if Dan would have gone willingly to prison – and for life!’
He reached out and grabbed Jeanne’s hand.
‘I swear to you, Jeanne, I would never have knowingly helped him to kill you! I love you! God help me, I love you!’
He fell forward onto the table.
The Inspector opened the door and asked a policeman to come in. He then switched off the recorder and, holding Jeanne by the arm, led her out of the room and along to his office.
After settling her into a chair he phoned for a doctor to look in on Marcus and then brought Jeanne a cup of tea.
‘Here, drink this. Wish I’d got something stronger to offer you but it’s frowned on by the bosses,’ he said, with a wry grin.
Jeanne took a grateful sip of the over-sweet tea and she too wished that it was something stronger.
They were both quiet for a few moments.
‘Are you going to be all right, Jeanne? Or would you like to see the doctor?’
She shook her head.
‘I’ll be fine, Inspector. It’s safe to assume I’m no longer suffering from traumatic amnesia! My memory’s completely returned. Horrible as it was listening to Marcus, I’m glad I now know what happened and why. My parents were just unlucky. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ She shuddered.
He nodded.
‘It’s more or less what I thought must have happened. I’m not surprised drugs were involved,’ he said gravely. Then he sighed and went on. ‘Although I understand that it doesn’t take away the pain of your loss, I hope that now you know what happened you can move on. You’ve shown a lot of courage, Jeanne and I hope that you now find happiness.’ He coughed.
She was touched.
‘Thank you, Inspector. That’s exactly what I’m hoping to find. Happiness at long last!’
She stood up to leave and as Inspector Ferguson went to open the door the sergeant burst in and blurted out, ‘Sorry to interrupt, sir. But we’ve just had news of a reported sighting of Dan Davidson!’
chapter thirty-four
Jeanne waited in the Inspector’s office while he went off with the sergeant. They’d rushed off without giving her any details so she still didn’t know where Dan had been sighted and if indeed it was really him. She prayed that he wasn’t still in Guernsey. Marcus’s chilling description of the way Dan had deliberately mown down her parents had brought home to her how dangerous he really was. It seemed likely he was mentally ill, not surprising after years of drug addiction, she thought, pacing around the room and twisting her hair into tight spirals.
Her nerves were stretched tight when, about twenty minutes later, Inspector Ferguson returned.
He looked pleased.
‘It’s good news, Jeanne. Davidson was sighted near Toulouse, probably heading for Spain and then North Africa. According to Marcus he has an apartment in Marrakech, as well as a home in Caen. We advised the French police of this and they were watching out for him. Anyway, we’ve just heard that he’s been picked up on the auto-route and is now in custody. He’ll be sent back here under armed guard as soon as the formalities are completed.’
He was smiling broadly by the time he had finished and Jeanne’s relief was written over her face.
‘Oh, thank God! I’ve been feeling so scared at the thought of him still free to try again. He’s evil!’ she shuddered.
‘Well, if he isn’t, he comes close. We’ll make sure he goes away for a very, very long time.’
‘You do have enough evidence? There’s no chance of his getting off, is there?’ she asked, still anxious.
‘Marcus’s testimony is pretty damning and we’re following up some leads that may give us even more evidence. And we can link him to the attempt on your life. He carelessly dropped some keys on La Belle Élise and we’ve found a witness who saw him on the boat and is positive they could identify him. So, Jeanne, I think it’s safe to say you can relax. Now, I’ll arrange for someone to take you home.’
Jeanne asked to be dropped off at the boatyard and it wasn’t long before she was pouring out all that had happened to Nick. He was saddened by the story of her parents’ deaths but cheered by the news that Dan was safely in police custody.
‘If you’re up to it, I’ll take you out to dinner tonight. The Inspector’s right, darling. It’s time to move on and build your new life. And I’m hoping I can be a part of that life,’ he said, holding her hands.
‘I think there’s a very good chance of that,’ she said softly. ‘A very good chance indeed.’
They had a quick, belated lunch at La Tonnelle and Nick then returned to work while she headed off to her own cottage. Her mind was still in turmoil as she grappled with the events of the morning. Would her life ever get back to normal? And what was normal, anyway? She sighed. Molly’s version sounded great, but she didn’t feel quite there, yet.
Le Petit Chêne seemed to be overrun with men. As she walked into the hall she spotted workmen in the sitting room and kitchen and Martin in discussion with the plumber at the top of the stairs. He waved her to come up.
‘You’re better now? Mrs Ogier said you were ill.’
‘Yes, I’m a lot better now, thanks Martin. I’m dying to know what you’ve all been up to. Can you show me, please?’
Everything looked to be nearly finished and Jeanne was pleased with what she saw.
Downstairs she found the two kitchen fitters half-buried in base carcasses.
Looking at the units already in place she was amazed at how many there were. Even though she had designed the layout that had not prepared her for the reality. There was a mass of storage and the range cooker looked resplendent next to the butler’s sink.
The fitters said they hoped to be finished by the end of the week. The worktop next to the sink would need to be measured for the granite to be ordered. The tiler would come back once the worktop was in place so the kitchen wouldn’t be completely finished for about two weeks but would be functioning much sooner.
She wandered into the other rooms, greeting the plasterer finishing off the sitting room. After a final word with Martin she set off to buy flowers. She was overdue at the graves and it seemed imperative for her to go today.
As she walked from the car she saw Reverend Ayres coming out of the Church and he came across to join her.
‘Hello, Jeanne. This isn’t your usual day. Been busy have you?’ he smiled warmly at her.
‘You could say that! Shall we sit down and I’ll tell you what’s been going on, Vicar?’
They sat on a nearby bench while Jeanne gave him the gist of what had kept her away that week and his face expressed his horror.
‘So, as you can see, it’s been quite a week! And now I need to have one of my chats with my parents,’ she grinned sheepishly.
‘Of course. I’ll leave you in peace.’
‘I don’t know about peace! It’ll all be in the papers now. My family seems to hit the headlines a lot these days,’ she said sadly.
Reverend Ayres squeezed her arm.
‘It will, as always, be a seven day wonder. And there’ll be a lot of sympathy for you, my dear. As with your grandmother, your parents can now truly rest in peace. I shall include you and your family in my prayers. Now, I’ll leave you to have your chat. God Bless.’
